Baldwin County father pleads to using switch on toddler, gets suspended sentence

Ricky Bernard Posey: 25-year-old Baldwin County, Alabama, man pleads guilty to child abuse for having used a switch on a toddler.

BAY MINETTE, Alabama -- A Baldwin County man who used a switch to discipline his toddler pleaded guilty last week to willful child abuse and received a suspended sentence.

On Thursday, Ricky Bernard Posey, 25, was handed a 10-year suspended sentence for the abuse. Circuit Judge J. Langford Floyd placed Posey on probation for 4 years and ordered him to attend anger management classes and to have no contact with the child.

According to prosecutors, after his then 2-year-old daughter kept wandering off without permission, Posey used a switch to discipline and left marks on her chest, back and arms in August 2008. The child was not critically injured, according to authorities. The case had been set for a jury trial this week, according to court documents.

Posey’s attorney, J. Clark Stankoski, said he believed the sentence is fair.

"He didn’t have the intent to injure the child," Stankoski said. "He was an untrained father that was disciplining his daughter in an inappropriate way."